The NHL Players’ Association has made the last two proposals in collective-bargaining talks with the NHL. The first, three weeks ago, was shot down in 10 minutes. Yesterday’s proposal in New York was rejected in 50 minutes. Sadly, that might be the only sign of progress.

The sides are closer than the rancor and rhetoric would suggest, but still miles from a deal, leaving the 2012-13 season in peril.

On Friday, it’s expected the league will cancel more games — at least two weeks’ worth — and the 2013 NHL All-Star Game, scheduled to be hosted by the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.

The Blue Jackets would not comment yesterday on the possible cancellation of the All-Star Game, but The Dispatch reported earlier this week that the midseason gala would be included when the next round of games are canceled by the league.

Now, the Jackets’ chances to hold the game will be tabled until at least 2015. The Winter Olympics in Socci, Russia, in 2014 will preclude an All-Star Game for the 2013-14 season.

“We moved far more than halfway,” NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr told reporters in New York. “Our expectation is the NHL is going to be willing to meet us if they’re willing to reach an agreement.”

That’s what Fehr said before the NHL had perused the players’ latest offer.

In it, the NHLPA asked for $393 million toward the NHL’s “make whole” provision, which bridges the gap between the owner’s desire for an immediate 50-50 split of hockey-related revenue and the players’ desire to have their existing contracts honored.

The league offered $211 million toward the provision in its latest offer.

The players also agreed to accept a percentage of revenues beginning with the first year of the CBA, rather than an established dollar figures. It was that part of the offer, sources told The Dispatch, that had the players thinking the NHL would be receptive.

“Let’s just say we didn’t get the message coming out of the room that we hoped we would get,” NHLPA negotiating committee member Ron Hainsey said.

What likely stopped the owners was an NHLPA demand for a guarantee that, after the second year of the CBA, their share of hockey-related revenue not be less (whole dollars) than it was in the previous season.

In other words, the salary cap would never dip below an estimated $67.3 million.

Fehr struck a far different tone after the NHL responded.

“On the big things, there was no reciprocity in any meaningful sense,” Fehr said. “No movement on the player’s share, nothing on arbitration or free agency or a pension plan. They say they would like to get on that, but we’ve seen no action.

“I can tell you a lot of people who were here today, given the response we got, thought they had a lot better things to do the night before Thanksgiving.”

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman rejected the notion that the NHLPA made meaningful movement toward the NHL’s last proposal. While stopping short of saying the NHL is done negotiating, Bettman said the league’s offer is not going to get any better.

The league, he said, is losing between $18 million and $20 million a day … roughly $10 million of that money that would be going to players.

“We went through their proposal point by point,” Bettman told reporters in New York. “We talked about the things that were in the agreement, the things that we could modify, and the things we had no room to move on, and we explained our position on each of those elements.

“Any expectation that our offer is going to get better as time goes by is not realistic.”

There are no plans for further negotiations. Bettman and Fehr, or their No. 2 men — Bill Daly of the NHL and Steve Fehr of the NHLPA — could chat by phone on Friday.

But neither side knows where to turn next. In 2004-05, during the last lockout, the season was canceled on Feb. 16.

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